Student Voices: What Makes A Powerful Project

Environmental Justice students, with science teacher Tricia Johnson, explore water quality issues on the West River.

At Common Ground, we push students to do real, authentic projects that help them master tough academic content while addressing actual community needs. Right now, students in Common Ground’s Environmental Justice course are planning their capstone projects — substantive, challenging, applying what they’ve learned so far this semester to a real community issue that matters to them. But what makes a powerful and successfull project?

Earlier this week, our Environmental Justice teachers — Tricia Johnson (Environmental Science) and Brian Kelahan (Social Studies) — asked students to tackle this question. Tricia explains what happened: “First, as an opener, they wrote down 3 things they they thought made for a successul project.Then we shared out. When I first asked for a volunteer to share, I got three hands. After that, there was deluge of hands until we reached this list.”

Here are students’ answers — helpful advice to any teacher trying to engage students in meaningful, field- and community-based learning:

Develop and follow a clear project purpose

The project should be about authentic work

Roles are assigned to each

Be focused and passionate

Tasks should be feasible to accomplish

Have an effective agenda

Put in effort

Have the ability to work with anybody

Have good accessibility to research and equipment

Have good communications within the group and with outside players

Time – enough to do a thorough job and possibly revise?

Have a specific time frame and specify timeline for each step/goal

Community involvement should be a part of the project

How can we explain the project to those who may not believe it is a problem and/or how do we consider other’s feelings

Project should take place in an accessible location

Be sure to get permission to access sites/place/equipment/interviews

Be organized and have good displays

If money is necessary, be certain about your finances

Have the right # of people working with you – not too many, not too few

Research how the project may affect others

There should be a part where you are educating a group

Have a backup plan in case there is a hiccup

“We really gave them almost no prompting,” says Brian Kelahan. “This is a list they generated on their own.”